Their Own Devices

Yet another bank robbery case, this time with no reliable witnesses

The cleanup

After returning from their time in France, the most wounded of their companions are rushed into medical care. Major Lowe has come directly from Belgium to assist with the more serious cases. Major Pringle has come along with him, to look at the devices that were retrieved from the site. Unfortunately as these were already claimed by shadowy Archival agents, he instead hangs around the labs being a pest and contributing to the design of new devices.

While he’s there, Lowe offers Aaron a job as field tester of some new devices he has coming out shortly, which Aaron accepts willingly, in the expectation that they may be healing devices.

Pringle offers the entire RSE the use of his life-force transferrance machine, to create attuned devices of their own.

After the chaos eventually subsides, the team eases into a quiet period over christmas and the new year, which they spend training and pursuing their own personal hobbies. Unfortunately because they all died last year, they can’t see family, so they stay on base for the holidays.

Major Bell comes by in January to review the impact of the kinetic weapons test in Normandy from the teams perspective, and to give Freddie a christmas present – a new set of drones. These drones are based on a reduced-capability version of the distributed AI used in the Alpha Arena bots, although hopefully less prone to homicidal breakdowns. If Freddie can ensure he brings back at least one of the six drones in the swarm, they will learn from their prior experiences and get smarter over time. Freddie names them the hounds.

The lull in activity continues through January and most of February, but can’t go on forever. Freddie passes the time watching their public sources (the red top and yellow paged tabloids for the most part) for anything worth looking into.

News snippets

A Mrs Tibbetts of Nottinghamshire reports being rescued from a mugger by a man in a policemans hat and cloak, who then flew away. Mrs Tibbetts reports “I’d not have been out there if my Bill were still alive, but I’ve been alone these last 12 years now, and that nice young man gave those hooligans a right good thrashing and then he was off into the sky. So nice to see that not all the youth are as bad as those ones off the telly”. The metropolitan police have noted that Mrs Tibbetts will get the help she clearly needs from social services, and further that impersonating a member of the police force is an offence under the Police Act 1996 liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine not exceeding 5,000 pounds, or both. The met further noted that any person not a constable wearing an article of police uniform in circumstances calculated to deceive is liable to a further fine not exceeding 1,000 pounds, and that possession of an article of police uniform is an offence liable for a further 200 pounds. In short, Superintendent Barry noted, “don’t toss about with police uniform”.

A meteor strike in northern france has caused a flurry of debate amongst the amateur astronomy community, as arguments flare up over the origin of the object that crashed into Normandy destroying several acres of historic regional parkland. Astrologers, meanwhile, have said that the arrival of the object clearly means prosperous times ahead for Aries, and that Scorpios should be wary of large financial transactions in the near future.

Hacker group Anonymous have claimed responsibility for a power outage in Kent that largely affected the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory and Royal Air Force operations, as well as the nearby town of Sevenoaks. The activist group’s statement claimed that DSTL and RAF were testing experimental advanced weaponry at the base. A spokesman for the RAF stated “After parliament gave AgustaWestland almost two billion pounds for the Wildcat helicopter programme, you’d be daft to think we were trying to hide them. Quite the opposite.”

Something to do

Wills goes to talk to Mrs Tibbets in Nottinghamshire, just to be sure that the flying squad is not now a real thing. Unfortunately he then has to talk to Mrs Tibbets, in all her racist old bat glory. It’s hard to say whether she’s just loopy, or there really was a flying gentleman impersonating a policeman.

Wills focuses on trying to get a better description of what the man was wearing, as policeman don’t generally go around in cloaks. He does succeed in narrowing down Mrs Tibbets impressions of the policeman’s hat and cloak (with the help of a quick google search) to a more modern bobbies helmet from the early 2000’s, and a cloak that hasn’t been worn since victorian times but is common in costumers.

An unusual robbery

Freddie and Hal come across a bank robbery in Elephant & Castle that seems a tad unusual – the robbery itself seems ordinary, it took place in a tiny off-brand bank in a crappier part of london – but the circumstances are somewhat strange. None of the witnesses interviewed by police can recall anything about the robbery, and none of the descriptions given for the robber line up. Even more unsual, all the security cameras and CCTV in the immediate area were disabled just prior to the robbery.

On investigating further, Hal finds that another robbery happened seven days earlier in another bank in Elephant & Castle, which fits the same profile of unusual memory loss. The team surmises some sort of memory wiping device, and some sort of EMP or accelerated hacking device for the cameras.

Another robbery, another robber?

While Wills is up in Nottinghamshire, Aaron and KD deploy to Elephant & Castle under the guise of couriers. When another robbery occurs two days later at Lambeth North Post Office, KD is able to get to the scene in time to see a young dark skinned man running from the scene. Aaron has been holding a central position and hurries to the location of the robbery. While on the way to the scene, KD rigorously checks for the presence of magical devices, and does not discern any in his immediate area. Aaron is using the long range detector, and he only sees the signature of KDs own device in the region.
KD chases the runner down an alley, and briefly loses him in the nest of ancient and decrepit yards and run down buildings.

After some quick hunting down of information on the surrounding buildings, Freddie identifies that two are owned by Saudi investment companies, one by a French real estate investment vehicle, one by an English real estate company, and the last has been held since before records began by a Whitlaw family.
Given the curious coincidence, the team confers briefly and decides to question their CO about his real estate holdings. Major Whitlaw denies all knowledge of the Whitlaws in question, saying simply that his family is from Cornwall since centuries back and the only property they own is the house he bought his mother after he started working for DMG.

Putting aside for now the suspicious ownership issue, KD is joined by Aaron and they look further into the alley. At this point they start to hear swearing from across one of the fences. Aaron being Aaron, he glances over the top of the fence from the other side of the alley, and see’s KD’s erstwhile running man clinging desperately to the brickwork on the side of the building while attempting to open what is clearly a locked window on the first floor.
After thoroughly scanning for any devices, and checking with Pembroke that the devices couldn’t in some way be disabled and not show up on the scan, Major Whitlaw orders the team to disperse and disappear into the general population before the local plod turn up, as this young scofflaw is clearly in their purview alone.

A more likely contender

Aaron points out that the previous two robberies that were definitely their target happened seven days apart. The team confers and decides this is likely a pattern worth pursuing, and they gear up to prepare for another robbery seven days after the last – ignoring the incident at the post office.

They deploy to a carpark near Elephant & Castle subway station, as a reasonably central starting location. In the van are Wils, Penfold, Freddie, and Aaron, with KD scouting and generally roaming around the area on a couriers motorcycle. Upton is providing logistical support and overwatch from Fort Halstead. Freddie has all but one of the hounds ready to go, launching from the sunroof of the non-descript blue Mercedes Sprinter they’re staging in.

Sure enough, later that morning a set of CCTV cameras surrounding the Link Financial in Camelford house near the river go dark. The team move to deploy there, with KD leading the way on his motorcycle.
However, there is a problem. Camelford House is a mall right next door to MI6 headquarters at SIS house!
After hurried co-ordination between Fort Halstead and Vauxhall Cross, the team is allowed to deploy in a low key manner within the mall. The bank in question has only two entrances and occupies a corner section in the mall. Aaron arrives and enters the bank, queuing up behind three others to assess the situation. It doesn’t yet appear that anything has occurred amiss in this bank.

MI6 goes onto lockdown, and otherwise leave the team to it. Aaron waits, as first one then another in the queue approach the counter and are served. The computers appear to be down, and the tellers are laboriously working through the complex paperwork required to perform even the simplest transactions. Several waiting people appear frustrated, stressed, and potentially robby.

Flash and dash

As Aaron approaches the front of the queue and wonders if there is going to be a robbery at all, KD approaches the exterior of the bank and plants a drone in a pot plant to get some eyes on the ground nearby. He doesn’t enter the bank, for fear of giving away their presence to the potential robbers.
After a few minutes, the rest of RSE realises they haven’t heard from Aaron. They call in, and get no response, so KD charges in and the rest of the team decamps from the van to prepare to storm the bank. Freddie releases the hounds to get surveillance on the entire perimeter and watch the exits, since the CCTV in the area is all down.

KD finds Aaron standing in the queue, surprised to see him, and even more surprised to see that the man who had just reached the first teller is gone. All Aaron can remember is a bright light, then KD arriving to check on him. The team figures at least three minutes have passed, but the robber is probably still in reach of the mall.
Fast work with the hounds to capture the faces of all pedestrians exiting the area and some work from Upton to cross check them in a hurry against the previously recorded faces outside the earlier robberies finds a match from the first robbery, three weeks ago now.

KD chases after the man, who cuts across a local park. The robber gets to the other side of the park just in time to get into a black bmw and get away before KD can catch him. The team pursues their quarry, now in a vehicle, across the bridge to the Pimlico subway station. Aaron cycles directly.from the mall, and makes it their just as KD gets their on his motorcycle courtesy of london traffic. Unfortunately, neither KD nor Aaron make it there in time to stop the robber getting away on the Victoria line, as the train pulls away just as they make it to the bottom of the subway station steps.

Subway paperwork

Freddie and Upton are monitoring CCTV in the area, and they see another blip as several CCTV cameras on the subway carriages flake out at once, and the train itself is briefly stopped in the tube.
Assuming their target has pulled the emergency stop and debarked between stations, KD sets up a cordon at Pimlico, while Aaron races ahead and sets up a cordon at Victoria, the next stop up the line.
Wils and Freddie head into the line office to try and get control of the subway line in the area that they believe the man to be still within.
However, the line office is extremely cautious about letting unknown persons into their secure areas, let alone access to internal surveillance and controls or secure areas of the lines, as security has been ramped up in the wake of the deadly July 7 attacks in 2005.
After eventually convincing the line superintendent of their bona fides, they are allowed to access the controls and shut down the section of line to prevent any further trains coming in, which means they can venture onto the track (provided they are accompanied by authorised transit authority personnel) to continue their pursuit.
It isn’t until this stage that the line super mentions that they have internal CCTV over all the pedestrian exits from the line, as well as alarm systems in place.
On quickly reviewing the footage and system status, Freddie figures out that no-one ever got off the stopped train – their target has escaped up the line with the train, and is now somewhere north. After all the holdups, that particular train has since reached the end and is returning, so their foe has almost certainly got clean away.

The team call a halt to the active component of the mission, to review footage and try and figure out their next steps. If nothing else, there’s always next week.

A sweep of terrorists in the deep

freddie leads the way with drone swarms, surveying the terrain and providing overwatch

after a few short firefights in the hallway following a dramatic entrance through the semi collapsed lift shaft, the team moves out to begin a classic sweep and clear

they find two hackers early on, one of whom is being ridden by a blood demon
they kill the male, and manage to capture the female alive. She turns out to be the hacker known as “Bottles”, partly responsible for the earlier attack on Fort Halstead.

as they move further in, freddie loses a few drones to stray rounds, they engage a few armed guards, and then find their way to what appears to be the main barracks room

in the barracks, they fight the leader of the cult, saving a sacrificial victim from immanent demonic possession in the process

unfortunately the demon vessel fights back and they are forced to knock her out before they can effect a rescue. She becomes their second prisoner taken during the raid, although she is dangerously possessed which makes for an extremely comfortable flight home.

A guardsman's lot

Training never ends

The players training continues at DMG HQ in Belgium, with some basic introductions to devices and what they might encounter in their role as guardsmen. The short version: don’t touch it, and if you have to touch it stop as soon as possible. Never put one on, because it might kill you. Treat all devices as if they are biological weapons, and nasty ones at that.

After they complete the more intellectual side of their training in Belgium, they are split up for the final three months of their training, and sent for specific education in their nominated roles. They continue with their lessons in languages, with all guardsmen expected to be fluent in French, and the players also pick up the basics of German.

Wils is being given introductory officer training, and is sent back to Alpha Group base in Nevada to start with. He is given a more open tour of the facility this time around, and discovers that it is situated in the heart of the Nevada Test Site, mostly buried underground in Area 14. Later, he is sent for tactical training with Gamma Group in Germany.

Therin is continuing to increase his medical knowledge, and at Medical Group hospitals in Germany he is taught everything he needs to know to operate as a competent field medic. He lets his family know that he is training as a doctor in a German university hospital.

KD is training as a scout and assault trooper, and he is deployed to Reconnaissance Group facilities initially in Germany, and later in Norway and the Czech Republic.

Lastly, Freddy is being given advanced systems training with the Information Operations group in France.

Oh wait, training ends

After their three months of specialist training, the players are all shipped back to Belgium for graduation and assignment. They graduate in a class of around 150 guardsmen, around a third of whom are assigned to Operations Squadron, with the remainder assigned to Logistics Squadron. They notice that the O.S. guardsmen are about a quarter female, with the L.S. guardsmen closer to a fifty/fifty split, which strikes them as an unusually high number of women to have in a combat force.

Therin, Freddy, and KD are given the rank of Lance Corporal within Operations Squadron, and Wils is made a full Corporal.
The fresh uniforms awaiting the players in their barracks are emblazoned with the cog and globe, O.S. fist, and a capital E below that. Along with the uniforms are orders to deploy to Epsilon Group base back in England.

A new home

After a brief flight back, they land at RAF Odiham in Hampshire, and are picked up by three DMG agents in an unmarked white van with tinted windows. They’re greeted by Sergeant Edward Sterling, who is going to be leading Fourth Squad, and to whom the players are reporting.
They are given a tour of Fort Halstead, and over the next six months they get to know its halls and chambers well, as they perform their duties as Epsilon Base guardsmen.

They get to know some of Epsilon Group’s personnel, and they spend a lot of their down time training. When possible, they train with Response Squad Epsilon, who seem to spend almost their entire lives sleeping and training.

During the first six months they are there, RS-E is only deployed three times. While RS-E is in the field, the guardsman platoon is on high alert, with nominated members ready to deploy as a containment crew if needed. During one of those deployments, Fourth Squad is on active duty, and they get to experience the constant stream of updates and radio chatter that bounces around the base while the Response Squad is out in the field.

Pear shaped is only good for pears

In June 2007, Third and Fourth Squad are briefed that they will be maintaining solo guard duty at Epsilon Base while a major operation goes on in France. They will need to be prepared to maintain up to three successive shifts, so are expected to get extra sleep in the days leading up to the operation.
After the briefing, Sgt Sterling lets the players know that it’s going to be a follow-up to an earlier attempt by Epsilon to clear Phi Base, where Sterling lost all of his squad-mates.
After they ask, Major Whitlaw gets the players clearance to read the after action reports for MERCURYBEGONIA and METRECARNATION, so they have a better idea what to expect from the upcoming operation.

When the day of comes around, the players anxiously monitor incoming comms to get a feel for how the operation is going. When, later in the shift, casualties start arriving back at Fort Halstead, it becomes clear that it has not gone well.
Therin is assigned to assist in the med bay, along with any other medically trained staff remaining at Epsilon.

Wils encounters a shell-shocked Corporal Pembroke returning with wounds to his arms and chest, who doesn’t appear to be responding to Wils questions. Corporal Fuller is with him, although he himself has a bandaged wound stretching from above his right eye almost all the way back across his bald head, and is almost painted red from the sheer amount of blood spread over his head and uniform.McCormack and Fisher are confirmed killed.

Over the course of the next ten hours, over 20 DMG agents are treated in Fort Halstead’s med bay. Horrifically, over twenty deceased DMG personnel are stacked in the corridors outside the med bay awaiting transport.
Two hours in, helicopters start arriving to take the more heavily wounded but stabilised agents to Medical Group hospitals in Germany.
Later in the day the helicopters remove the killed agents.

Over the course of the following week, all DMG personnel who survived the mission are rotated out of Fort Halstead to Medical Group facilities elsewhere in the world. A massive number of replacement and temporary staff are moved in to fill their roles in the interim.

A training montage

The players convince KD to sign up to join the DMG, since all their other options are so much worse.
They are shipped off to the US on a C130, escorted by four guards.KD can’t help but try and pick a fight with their escort, and the resulting scuffle leaves all four of the players taser’ed and unconscious. They wake to find themselves zip-tied into their seats on the transport, and spend the rest of the eight hour flight in uncomfortably upright positions.
They land in Nevada, and after being gagged and bagged again are transported to a base in an undisclosed location, where they spend their next six months in basic military training. They are not only thrashed physically and emotionally, but taught the basics of tactics and teamwork, and how to use the most commonly available firearms.
After six months of training, during which their general fitness and marksmanship has advanced exponentially, they are put back on a transport to fly to Europe.

They land in Belgium after another grueling flight, and are transported to yet another secret base. While there (in a heavily populated almost-city of a base) they are sent to lectures and tutorials on various more intellectual aspects of the DMG mission. They learn about the nature of technomantic devices, and the POWER Act that spawned DMG in the first place. They learn about the perils of attempting to attune oneself to a device without sufficient skill (and even with!). They learn about some of the most famous figures within DMG history, and they learn the basics of the second world war, from a magical (and super-black) perspective.

Borstal

A grinding existence

The players have finally been released from Her Majesty’s pleasure, and have managed to secure employment as day labourers.
They were allowed to move into a flat on Borstal Street, provided they check in weekly with Phil the parole officer, and take regular drug tests.
After the Borstal branch of Royal Bank of Scotland is knocked over, the local plod decide to have a word with Freddie and KD, since they’ve just moved into the area and there are signs of technical nous in the MO of the robbers.
After protesting their innocence, and denying any knowledge of the man shown in what security footage is available, the boys decide it is probably best to keep very quiet for the time being.

Eyes on

On the way back from a night at the local (Who’d Ha’ Thought It), Wils sees a man who fits the description from the security footage. After Freddie confirms that it’s definitely the guy, they decide it’s safest to call the police and just stay put.
The man in question goes into an abandoned mechanics workshop, and then leaves shortly afterwards. He gets into a white panel van with a missing rear plate, and drives off. Meanwhile the plod have still not deigned to make an appearance.
Shortly afterwards, a man who looks very similar to the first also emerges from the workshop. This second man walks away down the street and disappears around the corner of Maidstone and Warden, around the side of the St Margarets Cemetary.
Obviously, now that both suspects have left, the police decide to show up. After inspecting the property and finding it secure, the police decide that these likely lads have been having a jape, and send them home with a stern warning.

A pursuit

The man in the overcoat follows the players home from the mechanics, attempts to find out what they saw, see if they’re a threat to his operation.

The players refuse his offer of cash to leave the country, and the clone pulls his gun. He is overpowered by the players, who are horrified to find that his clothing appears to be fused to his skin, and can’t be removed. He has no technomantic devices on him, but when they knock him out he dissolves into a puddle of goo, which evaporates over a couple of minutes, leaving nothing but a slight sheen to the floor. The players have obtained a gun.

An odd pairing

The clones come back in the guise of policemen, wearing uniforms that are slightly the worse for wear and driving a cop car with two corpses in the boot. One of these police officers moves very quickly indeed, and after he is defeated they find his shoes have been left behind.
The players manage to overcome these (using the gun obtained from the previous clone), and gain another gun and a combat knife, at the expense of a small scratch on KDs chest.
They also found a key to the workshop, and decide to go and pay the man in the overcoat a visit at home.
While on their way, Freddie finds that the sneakers he has taken off a clone allow him to run extremely fast, and jump ridiculously high. It’s pretty awesome.
The mechanics workshop appears to be the base of operations for the technomancer.
They get in and defeat the clone with the avoidance, although Wils is shot in the thigh.
When they go to confirm the kill, they see a portal open in the wall, and another man who looks the same (but wearing a kevlar vest) disappears out of it. Before the players get a chance to pursue, the man picks up an object from the ground and the portal disappears.

After this, Freddie attempts to go outside to find out where they guy has got to. However, as soon as he steps out, he gets gunned down by agents of RS-E who have come to secure O’Hare as part of operation GREENDRAGONFLY (although fortunately using riot rounds, he is merely knocked out for a while). RS-E quickly take out the rest of the group, and they are bundled off to Fort Halstead.

After they are locked up, they are each interviewed by Doctor Sheridan, who is keen to get an understanding of their suitability for recruitment. The mindlock on their communication of events at Leverton is removed to allow them to write a second report on that event, in comparison with the events in Borstal.
They are made an offer they can’t refuse, which they mostly accept. Except KD, who professes that he would rather die than join…It’s unclear what he thinks these people are, some sort of super-boogyman evil that only the righteous snotty teenager can defeat, maybe. He raves about allowing magic to go free in the world, and how he has rights that can’t be removed.

Doc Sheridan shows him the legal documents which renounced his british citizenship, and assures him that they are, legally speaking, in no country. He has no rights but those that the Doctor decides to grant him. KD is unmoved by mere human logic, and decides instead to rant and rave for weeks on end.
Meanwhile the other players are left sitting around in a cell, waiting for KD.

Leverton Secure Children's Home

An inauspicious start in life

Gameplay opens with the players all resident in a secure children’s home just north-east of London, spending their 14th year on this earth at her majesties pleasure for various misdeeds.Freddie and KD have both been nabbed for their involvement in a credit card fraud ring that went down in a blaze of violent confrontation with the constabulary.Content Not Found: aaron is playing down his past, but given his massive size it’s a fair guess that someone somewhere had a very bad day. Wils, meanwhile, stabbed someone in the face for insinuating that his father was a crook. Quite aside from the fact that his father is a convicted criminal, he just won’t stand for that.
They share a dorm at Leverton with two other boys – “Diddle” and “”/characters/seb" class=“wiki-content-link”>Seb".

Schedule of a regular week and day is roughly as follows.
h6. “We get up at 7.30,” he begins. The boy looks shocked, as if he thought that 7.30 only happened in the evening. “Breakfast at 8.15. Then chores – hoovering, dusting – till 8.50. Then education, with lessons till 12.15, including a short break, and then lunch. Then education again until 3.30, after which there is some individual or group work till tea at 4.45. After that it’s homework for an hour…”
“Homework?” says the boy, incredulously. “Can’t I go on the Xbox?”
“Homework, for one hour, then after that Structured Activities – craftwork, model- making, gym, badminton, table tennis, volleyball,” says the manager. “Then after that maybe some time on the Xbox, if you’ve earned the privilege. We have supper at 8.30 and then it’s off to bed with everybody, depending on their age, locked in by 9.30.”

A visitor in the night

Leon Granville appears in the dorms at night, has a whispered conversation with Sebastian Granville, disappears as suddenly as he appeared.
A visitor returns, with companyLeon Granville returns to visit in the middle of the night a week later, telling Seb that he loves him, but has to go away. Something terrible has happened. They’re dead, they’re all dead. He never meant it to happen. RS Epsilon invade the halls of residence with sound and fury, a brief and decisive combat ensues.

A secret is enforced

Containment crew arrive to deal with the aftermath of the combat, and administer NDAs to all witnesses, and assuage the concerns of those who did not see what actually happened.